JETS,BUCS WIN IN OVERTIME TO OPEN TOURNAMENT

[dogwood30]

The 49th Super Bowl Tournament of the NJLMFL began with 2 overtime games. The Tampa Bay Buccaneers avenged their last post season loss to the Minnesota Vikings with a 30-24 overtime victory. The Bucs came back from an early 14-0 deficet with QB Steve Young throwing for 4 TD's hitting Mark Carrier with :58 left in regulation to tie the game at 24 and then a 53 yard strike to TE Jimmy Giles for the game winner. Young threw 2 other TD passes both to Giles from 1 and 62 yds out. The big tight end had 3 scores for the day as the Viking secondary could not cover him. Minnesota scored on its first drive after their running game led by RB Chuck Foreman got the ball to the Tampa Bay 1. Tommy Kramer hit Chris Carter on a loft pass for the score. After the kickoff Tampa RB Warrick Dunn fumbled on his own 27 and 2 plays later Foreman ran 21 yds for another Minnesota TD and a 14-0 lead. Tampa came back with the 62 yd Giles TD at 10:59 of the 2nd to make it 14-7. Minnesota K Gary Anderson hit a 43 yd FG with :14 left in the half and the Vikings took a 17-7 lead into the intermission. The only scoring in the 3rd came after a great defensive stand by the Vikings defense. Tampa had first and goal from the 8 and got it to the 2. On 4th and 2 John Gruden sent in Martin Grammatica who hit from 19 yds out to cut the Viking lead to 17-10. The Bucs tied the game with 6:41 left on the 1 yd pass from Young to Giles who was covered well but mad a spectacular catch. On the kickoff Minnesota return man John Gilliam returned the kick 56 yds to the Tampa Bay 27. Kramer hit Randy Moss at the sideline for a first down at the Bucs 5. From there Foreman scored his second TD and the Vikings regained the lead 24-17 with 3:57 to go. Steve Young was red hot all day. He hit on successive passes to Keyshawn Johnson and Jimmy Giles and then scrambled down to the Minnesota 10 where Young called timeout with just 1:14 left. Young found Carrier on the next play for a 10 yd TD completion to tie the game with :58 seconds to go. Gilliam returned the kick to the Minnesota 47. The Vikings ran Foreman who was stopped for ony 3 yds at midfield. Randy Moss caught another sideline pass at the Tampa 42 with just :11 to go. The Vikings were out of timeouts. Kramer then hit Foreman out of the backfield down to the Bucs 30 but he couldn't quite get out of bounds in time so it was on to overtime. Minnesota never saw the ball again. Tampa Bay KR Clifton Smith returned the ball to the Bucs 35. On first down Young hit Keyshawn Johnson for 12 yds to the Tampa 47. The next play ended the game. Young rolled out and found Giles down the middle and the big fella outran the Minnesots defenders to the endzone for the win. Minnesota controlled the line of scrimmage all day. The only way to beat a team with a great running game and a strong line is to have a hot QB and Steve Young was that guy. Tampa will move on to play the Los Angeles Rams in the next round. No photos of this game. (local blackout)

Game 2 was sloppy as sloppy gets. The Jets and Chiefs both played great between the 20s but turnovers ended most of the drives. After a scoreless first quarter. Chiefs QB Len Dawson hit on one of his few passes of the day a 67 yd TD to TE Tony Gonzalez and a 7-0 lead which held to the half. The Jets drove deep into KC territory late in the 3rd but the drive stalled and K Nick Lowrey had to settle for a 24 yd FG to make it 7-3 at the end of 3. Namath who was picked off 2 times and Dawson who threw 4 had to come up big. After they both traded picks in each others territory Namath finally came to life hitting Wesley Walker on a long pass to the Chiefs 10.(photo). The Jets took 3 plays to get it to the 7 with just over a minute left. On 4th and goal Namath looked to the endzone but KC had great coverage. With everything he had Namath took off and scored just ahead of the KC defender to give New York a 10-7 lead( 2 photos). There was :58 seconds to go and the Chiefs had only 2 timeouts. The got a good return to their own 45. On second and 10 Dawson found Otis Taylor open down the left sideline and hit him at the Jets 27 but he didn't get out of bounds. KC called timeout with :17 left. The next play Dawsons recievers were covered so he took off as did Namath earlier and he was able to get to the Jets 20 and used their final timeout with :02 remaining. All time great Jan Stenerud kicked the 37 yd FG to send the game into OT. The Jets won the toss and returned the kick to their own 34 but went 3 and out. The Jets then got a booming punt sending Dante Hall back to his own 14 where he had to make a fair catch. Interception #4 by Dawson sent the Chiefs home. Dawson called for the same sideline pattern to Otis Taylor as he did in the last drive. Dawsons pass was on target but Jets DB Darrelle Revis read the play, darted in front of Taylor and picked the ball off in full stride. 36 short yards later Revis was in the endzone giving the Jets a 16-10 overtime victory. The Jets will move on to the 1st round of the divisional playoffs next wekk when they travel to Tennessee to face the Titans.

[RavennaAl]

Well, no wonder the Vikings lost. Tommy Kramer at QB??? Where the heck is Fran Tarkenton?? Fran's the man, everyone know that.
Oh well, doesn't really matter. The Rams are going to take it all!

[WEIRDWOLF]

I am so disappointed!! A pick-6 gives the Jets the victory! That's just not like Lenny the Cool! As I have said ALL MY LIFE, "there's always next year."

Great write ups!